The Works of St Augustine, a Translation for the 21st Century: Books (Volume 6): De Civitate Dei (The City of God) - Softcover

St Augustine, Boniface

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156548455X ISBN 13: 9781565484559

Publisher: New City Press, 2013

Synopsis

Along with his Confessions, The City of God is undoubtedly St. Augustine’s most influential work. In the context of what begins as a lengthy critique of classic Roman religion and a defense of Christianity, Augustine touches upon numerous topics, including the role of grace, the original state of humanity, the possibility of waging a just war, the ideal form of government, and the nature of heaven and hell. But his major concern is the difference between the City of God and the City of Man – one built on love of God, the other on love of self. One cannot but be moved and impressed by the author’s breadth of interest and penetrating intelligence. For all those who are interested in the greatest classics of Christian antiquity, The City of God is indispensible.

This long-awaited translation by William Babcock is published in two volumes, with an introduction and annotation that make Augustine’s monumental work approachable. This volume, Books 1-10, contains Augustine's critique of the Roman religious, political, and intellectual tradition explaining that Rome’s traditional gods were neither able to provide happiness in this life nor in the life to come.

About this title

About the Author

Aurelius Augustinus (354-430) was born and raised in Roman North Africa. His mother Monica provided a Catholic upbringing in his modest home town of Thagaste. However, Augustine preferred the liberties available to young men of his time and place. He also excelled at school. As a student at Carthage he joined the Manichean religious sect. After teaching rhetoric at Carthage and then Rome, he rose to become the official spokesperson for the Roman Emperor in Milan. Amidst a crisis of faith and doubt, Augustine read the writings of Neo-Platonic philosophers and listened to the preaching of Bishop Ambrose of Milan. Resigning from imperial service, the 32 year old Augustine began an intensive study of scripture. He was baptized by Ambrose at the Easter Vigil in April of 387. A year later he returned to Africa and within several years was ordained to serve the diocese of Hippo (present day Annaba, Algeria), as priest and then bishop. Charged with the pastoral care of his people, and confronted by the major doctrinal controversies in the early Church, Augustine employed his significant rhetorical skills and his genius for writing to compose some of the foundational texts of Christian theology in the Latin West. These include his Confessions, Teaching Christianity, The City of God, The Trinity, Expositions of the Psalms-to name just a few of his many books. We also have almost 300 of his letters to a wide variety of correspondents, and 400 of his sermons. Augustine criticized the rejection of the Hebrew Scriptures by his former Manichean co-religionists; argued against the exclusionary ecclesiology of the Donatist Christians; confronted Arian Christianity with a deeply Catholic Christology; and, until the end of his life defended the supremacy of divine grace against what he understood to be the self-justification preached by the followers of the British monk Pelagius. His interpretation of original sin and its effects on humanity grew out of his personal and pastoral experience of the human pain and suffering wrought by ignorance and by disordered, destructive choices. Throughout the Middle Ages, Augustine's writings remained influential and extended the influence of Platonic philosophy in Western Christendom. Even after the 13th century rise of Aristotelian philosophy in the writing of Thomas Aquinas, Augustinian thought persisted in various Medieval schools, and in the writings of Martin Luther, who had been a member of the Order of Saint Augustine. Augustine's thought was influential at the Second Vatican Council. He remains a conversation partner for philosophers and religious thinkers of many persuasions. The latest, complete translations of his works in English are published by New City Press in partnership with The Augustinian Heritage Institute.

From the Back Cover

"This is a magnificent new translation, sure to be welcomed by readers of Augustine old and new. It is certainly worthy of a place among the great translations of this work, offering an eminently readable and accurate rendition. One forgets one is reading a translation -- isn't that the goal of all great translating? Highly recommended."
John Cavadini, Professor of Theology and Director of the Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame

"This lucid translation of Augustine's complicated Latin text, complemented by an expert introduction and helpful notes, is a remarkable achievement indeed. A new jewel in the crown of an already famous series that is highly appreciated worldwide."
Johannes van Oort, Editor of Vigiliae Christianae; Author of Jerusalem and Babylon (1991; paperback: Leiden-Boston 2012)

"All will be grateful for Babcock's new subheadings and summaries, which trace the articulations of Augustine's carefully connected argument. His long reflection and deep understanding, expressed in his outstanding Introduction, shape every sentence of this clear and thoughtful translation."
Gillian Clark, Professor Emerita, University of Bristol; Co-editor, Oxford Early Christian Studies

"William Babcock's City of God is likely to become the new standard thanks to a first-rate introduction, helpful scholarly aids, a substantial index, and a translation into a contemporary English that is clear enough for students to understand yet reliably close to the original."
Paul R. Kolbet, Lecturer in Early Christianity, Yale University; Author of Augustine and the Cure of Souls (Notre Dame 2010)

"The monumental City of God has astonishingly relevant things to say to an age of postmodernism, secularism, multiculturalism and globalisation. This affordable new translation with useful notes will make this masterpiece accessible to the 21st century reader."
Karla Pollmann, Professor of Classics, University of St. Andrews

From the Inside Flap

"[T]his translation fully justifies the praise that has already been heaped on it. Lyrical without any sacrifice of sense, it compares consistently well with both Dyson and Bettenson and is certainly the most beautiful and up-to-date of the existing versions Augustine used multiple Latin versions of the Bible besides Jerome's, including his own, and one great advantage of the edition under review is that, where past translators have used pre-existent English versions of the Vulgate for scriptural citations, Babcock renders each scriptural quotation directly and individually Babcock takes the unique step of removing the titular headings which have formed an integral part of the work since the first printed edition, but which are in all probability non-authorial Its absence has a clarifying effect The notes are comprehensive enough to suffice for any level of reader and are given as footnotes for ease of reference (neatly including the kind of material on key people and events that is glossarial in the Cambridge University Press edition) [A] truly new, elegant and intelligent translation well worth both the committed Augustinian's and the neophyte's while.
Arabella Milbank in Marginalia (the Journal of the Medieval Reading Group at the University of Cambridge

Edition details

• Publisher: New City Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 156548455X
• ISBN 13: 9781565484559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 404
• Editor: Ramsey Boniface